Back Pain

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef

Actually I am standing 95% of my day at the front desk of my hotel. Despite having an office I rarely get to use it.


No trauma or injury.

It hurts 4"-6" above my belt line, right alone the spine.

I have found sitting up straight hurts and leaning forward a bit while sitting helps relieve a little pain. I have tried hot showers, heat packs and tiger balm but there was no help.

I have had occasional back pain for the better part of 15 years. But nothing that lasted more than a couple days.

How old are you? It sounds like a simple instability - one joint in your spine moves a bit more than the rest, which is pretty common. It's hard to tell with that little information but that's my first impression.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Minnie

Antibiotics? Eh?

Haha. I'm guessing they're talking about Sulfasalzine, which, while it is an antibiotic somewhat, is really an anti inflammatory

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Haha. I'm guessing they're talking about Sulfasalzine, which, while it is an antibiotic somewhat, is really an anti inflammatory

Yeah the kid was on that and Methotrexate, which are some of the typical DMARDs they start you out on, to the best of my knowledge. Now she's on the biologic. It's done the job much better. We got such a kick out the way the rheumatologist described the difference between DMARDs and biologics lol.

[SHOGUN]

Deadlifts and squats.

[AvsJerk]

I'm am just getting out of the woods from a back injury (bulging disc) between L4 & L5. It happened around April 12th when I was picking up a fish I had just caught, a movement that I had made probably a million times before. I wasted about a week going to the general practicioner a couple of times...pain meds, muscle relaxants, and some stretching exercises (which I couldn't do because I could barely move). Went to the spine doctor and got an MRI and X-ray to make sure there wasn't anything really wrong and he prescribed a month and a half of PT twice a week.

The Physical Therapy is what has really helped, a slow process, each week better than the last but not everyday better than the previous. It's a slow process. I think what has been working the best for me is hamstring stretches, ball squats with a physio-ball between my back and a wall, therapeutic massage and ultrasonic massage.

I missed almost two weeks of work, could barely move, had to use a stick to pick stuff up off the ground. The muscle relaxants and pain meds gave me horrible constipation and it really hurt taking a crap...couldn't even reach around to wipe my ass because of my back...it was really depressing and I'm just now getting out of the depression.

Don't waste your time at the regular doctor, make an appointment with a spine doctor.

I've torn both my rotator cuffs, spiral fractured one of my femurs, had two root canals, a broken tail bone, and this was the most pain and the most scared I've ever been from an injury. I wish you luck and hope that you get better as soon as possible.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by SHOGUN

Deadlifts and squats.

The physio guys showed me some yoga moves that really helped with the back thing too.

Cowperson

[Cali Panthers Fan]

What Cowperson said earlier is a great management plan for simple mechanical back pain. The problem with back pain is that the highest predictor of an episode of back pain is a previous history of back pain. Pretty specific huh? Unfortunately, some people are just more susceptible to experiencing pain due to a small mechanical instability. You might be in this category.

Without doing a full clinical workup on you, I would say go see a chiropractor to check for fixation/instability, and maybe go see a physiotherapist to work on stability and recovery. If you don't have any major degeneration in the spine, I would imagine you will recover in a few weeks with care. You may have to regularly adhere to a maintenance routine going forward to prevent future injury. You may also want to work with a chiropractor/physiotherapist who does a lot of work with feet. If you're standing all day, misalignments in your feet can affect the motion in your knees, hips, and pelvis, resulting in a compensation in your back, as well as tight and poorly functioning foot, leg, and buttock muscles. Look into this as well as treating the back directly.

If you go to a medical doctor they will only give you pain medication and muscle relaxants. That is not a long term solution, but it might help you feel better in the short term. Palliative care will not fix what is causing the pain in the first place, so it will definitely come back if you don't do something to correct the root cause of the problem. What that is will be determined by the chiro/physio doctor. They are familiar with these problems (much more so than a medical doctor) and will get you on the right track.

I hope I've been helpful. Good luck, and remember that you will likely recover very well if you have the right management plan. Do NOT get discouraged and stay positive.

I've had pain for 4 years. It started while I was pregnant. I did chiro for 3 years. It was a weekly trip. I got to the point where I questioned why I was spending $ on something that wasn't curing me.
I have been doing hip, glute, shoulder and core exercises. I swim 3 times a week. And I still have pain on and off. When it gets bad I either do anti inflammatory, pain reliever or Emulgel. Sorry I have no answers, just wanted to share.

[Alberta_Beef]

just want to thank everyone again for help/suggestions. I've been trying to do stretches and staying active and while it gets a little better its still quite painful, today I was stuck in a car for a few hours and it killed me.

What is the consensus on hot tubs? good? bad? neither?

[Azure]

Hot tubs are awesome.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Azure

Hot tubs are awesome.

Thanks, I'm at a hotel with one. I think I will make use of it as much as I can before checkout tomorrow.

[Azure]

The hot tub will dilate your blood vessels, increasing blood flow.

I still recommend the foam roller/lacrosse ball approach. Even going to a massage therapist would probably be a good idea. If you have 'knots', the hot tub will give you relief, but probably won't fix anything.